H. David Stern, the commissioner of a 26-team league with 30 franchises, who can't seem to understand why they're not making money. Gee, I wonder, David. That's a real head-scratcher. Once considered the greatest commish ever,5 Stern could have gotten creative about ways to change the revenue stream, protect the owners, incentivize overachieving players, add a play-in tournament for the 8-seeds, get sponsored jerseys, merge two struggling teams, take advantage of the Chicago market (by adding a second team there) and any other idea that could have prevented us from missing games, and instead, just did the second grade bully routine of "You have too many cookies, I WANT SOME OF YOUR COOKIES!" before finally bending to a reasonable place these past two weeks. But too much damage was done. Now it's a staring contest and a dick-swinging contest. Nobody wins. Everyone loses.

He does a nice job of taking the piss out of everybody. I have to say that Stern's role bothers me a ton, because he surely saw how the interests of the various parties would play out, and was in the best position to be creative, and spur further creativity from all the rest. Instead he allowed everyone to get locked in for this lose/lose stinker.

This was David Stern at his best, the smartest guy in the room -- just ask him -- running the game with an audience of millions. This is why Stern makes whatever salary he makes, because he told the owners he would deliver for them and it was time to make good on that promise.

In the language of diplomacy, as Stern likes to say, he always makes good -- always knows, like some of the greatest stars his league has produced, when it is time to close the deal.

Stern had to come through Thursday in the tipoff of his little media tour. It was time to stem the tide of public opinion against the owners and turn the full force of what longtime observers call "Mt. Stern" on Billy Hunter and the union. The message was clear: Once Stern erupts like this, few people and their principles will be left standing. You have a blood issue? Here's a mop. Now go clean it up.

For really the first time in more than two years of negotiations, Stern eloquently explained the owners' solutions for fixing the NBA and made it all sound so reasonable. His depiction of the negotiations, of the bargaining points, of the back and forth was blissfully incomplete, as his nickname, the Ommissioner, would suggest.

But this was an important moment for Stern, winning time in these negotiations. With Hunter having made the rounds on the radio a day earlier and en route to Los Angeles to update his players on the current state of their inevitable doom, Stern meticulously dismantled the union, its leadership, its bargaining points, its beliefs -- everything but its women and children, and might I suggest that they remain securely hidden until this is over.

At a time when the public, and, in fact, a federal mediator, was finally beginning to catch on to the sheer insanity and unreasonableness of the owners’ demands, Stern expertly turned the table and made it seem like it was the players who were being obstinate -- the players who had placed a grenade under the 2011-12 season and pulled the pin. The public, always inclined to turn on athletes at a time like this, was this close to feeling sorry for them -- this close to siding with rich guys who were getting bullied by even richer guys.

Few people really embrace NBA players for reasons that form the strands of another story for another day. But one thing nobody likes is a blowout. Nobody likes running up the score.

And this is where Stern, who at 69 is smack dab in the middle of the moment that will define his legacy, had better understand his real duty and responsibility as this broken negotiation limps into the arms of a federal mediator next week. His duty is not simply to win, to get what the owners -- his clients -- want. His greater responsibility is to get a deal and reopen his sport. Anything less, any attempt to run up the score here, will result in a defeat of dizzying, devastating proportions for everyone.

For Stern and his owners, for the players and the NBA as a whole, there is a fine line between victory and defeat. When you begin to enjoy too much the feeling of your foot on the opponent's throat, you risk turning victory into catastrophe.

There's such a thing in war, intelligence, law enforcement and yes, negotiation, as taking your victim alive.

In an interview on Friday with The Associated Press, Dwyane Wade expressed growing concern about the prolonged nature of the lockout.

"The longer it goes on, the more fans we're going to lose," Wade said.

That sentiment is one part of negotiations that appears universal.

"We haven't done a great job of complaining," Wade said. "That's what the NBA has done, they've done a great job of complaining. We haven't done a great job of that so no one sees our side. They more so see the owners' side."

Wade disagrees with Stern on why small market teams struggle to be competitive.

"To me, it's not about who has the most chips," Wade added. "I think it's about who manages their chips the right way. That's why I think we have a management problem. Small markets have won championships. San Antonio is a very small market and they have four championships in the last 10 years or whatever the case may be."

Wade thinks he knows more than he does. Yes, exceptions can happen, but the playoffs are dominated by teams that aren't small-market.... just because SA got extremely lucky in the Tim Duncan draft year by getting a true franchise-changing big man, doesn't mean that small-market teams should have to bank on such unrealistic expectations in order to have a remote chance to compete year in and year out. Wade's point is foolish and I'm surprised the majority of players would agree with it. At what point do players from these smaller markets come together and actually demand a system that levels the playing field in terms of competitive balance? My guess is that they're all too greedy to care about competitive balance but too unaware to realize their greed is a catalyst of small-market failure.

I don't think any of these bozos, players and owners, are smart enough to see the big picture. It boils down to one group wanting a deal so they can make more money, and the other wanting one so they can keep on making more money. Or is that both groups?
When they start taking pay cuts, both parties, across the board, and lower ticket prices, make shit more affordable for the working class, then maybe you've got the makings of a human heart growing there.
All this shit about players tweeting their sorry for the everyday "folk" who depend on the season to make minimum wage. Fuck.
I know this has always been there. Just fucking bullshit that's all. American way bullshit.